, 1887-05-28

must have slept several hours, for 1 was
quite stif from my constrained posture when
l became fully aroused
/ was awakened Ivy a very lpscrIIiny
sound; it was like a distant call or halloo.
Although l had been fast asleep a mo.
ment before, it startled me into a state
OF tho highest attention. In a second /
was wide awake. There was not u sound az
cept the rumble and roll of the thunder as
tho storm once more began to renew itself.
and in the segment Of the circle that | could
see nlong the hall through my door, and in
deed out through tho ynwning window at the
end, as far as the black clump Of trees in the
graveyard just at the bend of the canal,
which l commanded from my seat, whenever
there was a fash of lightning, there was only
the swaying of the bushes in the swamp and
of the trees in the graveyard. Yet there l
sat bolt upright on my bed, in the darkness,
with every nerve strained to its utmost ten
sion, and that unearthly cry still sounding in
my cara l was endeavoring to reason my
self into the belief that 1 had dreamed 1t,
when a fash Of lightning lit up the whole
field OF my vision as il 1t had been in the
focus Of a sun glass, and out on the canal
where 1t curved around tho graveyard was a
boat-small, black, with square ends, and
with a man in it, standing upright, and some
thing lying in a lump or mass at the bow.
l knew l could not be mistaken, for the
Lightning by a process OF its own photographs
everything on tho retina in minutest detail,
and l had a vivid impression of everything
from the foot Of the bed which 1 crouched to
the gaunt arms Of those black trees in the
graveyard just over that ghostly boatmaa
and his dreadful freight. l was wide ave.
The story of the dead rowing in their collins
was VERIFIED
am unable to state what passed in the next
few minutes.
The storm had burst again with renewed
violence and was once more expanding itself
on the house; the thunder was again rolling
overhead; the broken blinds were swinging
and siamming madly; and tho dreadful
memories OF the place were once moro beset-
ting me.
l shifted my position to relieve tho crnmp
it had accustomed, still keeping my fuce to-
ward that fntal window. As I did so 1
heard above, or perhaps L should say
under, the storm a sound more ter
Iiblo to me-the repetition of that weird
halloo, this time almost under the great win
dow. Immediately succeeding this was the
sound of something scraping under the wall,
and L was sensible when a door on the ground
floor was struck with a heavy thud. 1t was
pitch dark, but l heard the door pushed wide
open, and as n string of fierce oaths, part
English and part Creole French, hoated up
the dark stairway, mufled as If sworn through
clinched teeth, l held my breath. 1 recalled
the unkhewn tongue the ghostly murderer
employed; and knew that the murderer Of
No Haid Pawn had left his grave, and that
his ghost was coming up that stair. l heard
his step as 1t fell on the first stair heavily, vet
almost noiselessly. 1t was an unearthly sound
-dull, like the tread of a barred foot, accom-
panied by the scraping sound of u body drag
ging. Step by step he came up the black
stairway in the pitch arkness as steadily as
if it were daytime-and he know every step
accompanied by that sickening sound of drag
ging. There was a final pull up the last step,
and a dull, heavy thud, as with a strange,
wild laugh he flung his burden on the floor.
For a moment there was not a sound, and
then the awful silence and ~blackness were
broken by a crash Of thunder that seemed to
tear the foundations asunder like a mighty
earthquake, and the whole house and the
great swamp outside were filed with a glare
OF vivid, binding light. Directly in front of
me, clutching in his appraised hand a long,
keen, glittering knife, on whose blade ii ball
Of fire seemed to play, stood a gigantic figure
in the very flame of the lightning, and
stretched at his feet lay, CHASTITY and bloody,
n black and headless trunk.
l staggered to the door and, tripping, fell
PROSTATE over the sill.
When we could get there nothing was left
but tie foundation. The haunted house when
struck had literally burned to the waters
edge. The change current had washed its
Vy0 " RlDGa IN fha Flarn arl u, $40. ..u.G